Warsaw - A new bill on the amendment to Poland’s animal rights law to make kosher and halal slaughter legal in Poland has been submitted for public consultation, a spokesperson for the Ministry of agriculture has announced.

Spokeswoman Małgorzata Książyk says the public consultation period will last one week, following a Constitutional Court ruling late last year which said that ritualised slaughter of animals for religious purposes was inconsistent with Polish animal rights law.

The court concluded that a 2004 amendment that introduced exceptions to an animal protection law that forbade the slaughter of animals without prior stunning was “unconstitutional.”

Last week, the new draft law, which would make Polish law compatible with European Union regulations, was considered by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, and the bill has now been passed on to social and trade union organizations for consultation.

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The case was brought before the Constitutional Court last year by animal rights activists who claim the practice is cruel.

Ninety Polish scientists addressed a letter to Poland’s prime minister in December saying that kosher and halal slaughtering methods are “extremely cruel to animals”.

“Our position is not dictated by any dislike of religious practices and rituals but based solely on scientific knowledge and moral opposition to extreme forms of cruelty to animals,” reads the letter written by Dr Antoni Amirowicz at the Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences and Prof. Jerzy Bańbura of the Department of Experimental Zoology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Lodz.

There are differences of opinion among legal experts and politicians as to whether Polish law needs re-writing, however.

Director of the Institute of Legal Sciences, Professor Wladyslaw Czaplinski said in January that “EU Regulation have absolute priority over [Polish] law”, though Agriculture Minister Stanislaw Kalemba believes that in order to legalize ritual slaughter it is necessary to amend the Protection of Animals Act.

Minister Kalemba has said the practice should be made legal again not just for religious reasons but also because the ritual slaughter for meat earns 1.2 to 1.5 billion zloty (400 million euros0 per year for the Polish economy, and creates between 4 and 5,000 jobs.

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Jan 24, 2013 at 03:51 PM5TResident Says:

Its not because they're being nice to the Jews. First, Poles have never been nice to Jews. Second, how many Jews can there be in Poland who really care about hechsher? Certainly not enough to make a difference to the Polish government.

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Jan 25, 2013 at 10:46 AMfrater Says:

“
Its not because they're being nice to the Jews. First, Poles have never been nice to Jews. Second, how many Jews can there be in Poland who really care about hechsher? Certainly not enough to make a difference to the Polish government. ”

1. Poland exports a lot this meat and it's a lucrative business for some. 2. There is an old Muslim community in North-East Poland (a few thousands people of Tatar origin living there since XVIIth century) and there are a few tens of thousands of more recent Muslim immigrants.3. I hope the law will be amended. There's a lot to do to promote animal welfare in Poland, opposing shehita shouldn't be on the priority list.

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Jan 27, 2013 at 12:14 AMShmuelG Says:

“
1. Poland exports a lot this meat and it's a lucrative business for some. 2. There is an old Muslim community in North-East Poland (a few thousands people of Tatar origin living there since XVIIth century) and there are a few tens of thousands of more recent Muslim immigrants.3. I hope the law will be amended. There's a lot to do to promote animal welfare in Poland, opposing shehita shouldn't be on the priority list.

So, ShmuelG, how often do you pray for my country to be obliterated? ”

I admit I don't do it as often as a decent man should. I will keep that in mind for the future.

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Jan 27, 2013 at 04:42 PMfrater Says:

“
I admit I don't do it as often as a decent man should. I will keep that in mind for the future. ”

Well...that doesn't make a lot of sense. Having lived outside of Poland for decades, I discovered many times that the most decent/intelligent/nice people I encountered felt a lot of sympathy towards Poland. It seems to go together.

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Jan 28, 2013 at 04:33 PMShmuelG Says:

“
Well...that doesn't make a lot of sense. Having lived outside of Poland for decades, I discovered many times that the most decent/intelligent/nice people I encountered felt a lot of sympathy towards Poland. It seems to go together. ”

Not surprising, you just gravitate to your own amoral (and murdering) kind.

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Jan 28, 2013 at 08:18 PMfrater Says:

“
Not surprising, you just gravitate to your own amoral (and murdering) kind. ”

Says the man who thinks that a memory of a +40-million nation should be erased from history....So do you dream of all Polish men/women/ and children being murdered, or just enslaved like Hitler wanted to do?

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Jan 28, 2013 at 10:48 PMShmuelG Says:

“
Says the man who thinks that a memory of a +40-million nation should be erased from history....So do you dream of all Polish men/women/ and children being murdered, or just enslaved like Hitler wanted to do? ”

What, suddenly you are afraid that you may have to answer for what you did in 1940s? Or what your father did?

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Jan 29, 2013 at 10:45 AMfrater Says:

“
What, suddenly you are afraid that you may have to answer for what you did in 1940s? Or what your father did? ”

I see that your understanding of calendars rivals your knowledge of history...Do you know what year it is? Do you imagine it's a +90 years old grandma that's talking to you? Because that's the age it would take to be a responsible adult in the 40s.

Besides, I'm enjoying the sound bites. You provide some very good and revealing ones.